The development of teachers’ knowledge and understandings about effective classroom assessment strategies depends on the roles played by initial teacher education (ITE) providers, the employing schools, tutor teachers and other colleagues. For beginning teachers this is learning to satisfy professional, school and systemic needs to improve learning outcomes for children. Many teachers are currently overwhelmed by the demands of classroom assessment. This makes the induction of beginning teachers in classroom assessment practices somewhat problematic. This presentation explores the process by which beginning teachers become socialised into the culture of assessment from initial teacher education programmes into their first teaching positions. This paper is drawn from a larger study which includes the socialisation roles of initial teacher education programmes and schools employing new graduates. The journeys of two beginning primary teachers learning their classroom assessment roles are the focus for this paper. Data is reported from these beginning teachers and those who have supported them to show what factors may help and hinder their professional learning for their assessment roles.
Paper presented at the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) conference, Wellington, 24-26 November 2004.